The cyber security expert Abdul Serwadda has looked into the proposition of using brain waves to authenticate users instead of passwords.
Brain Waves Can Authenticate Users with a High Degree of Accuracy
Passwords are one of the weakest options for authenticating users to products and services. They can easily be brute forced with specialist software tools, and the majority of Internet users do not opt to use a secure password policy. Furthermore not every service or product can secure the private credentials of its users. We have witnessed massive data leaks that show not only user names and passwords.
Abdul Serwadda, a researcher from the Texas Tech University, has shown that brain waves can be used to authenticate users with a high degree of accuracy. The method uses EEG which requires users to wear a device on their head to detect and measure their brain activity. The brain waves themselves scan continuously while the computer user uses the device and periodically checks if the user is still the same. Effective and user-friendly brain wave authentication methods are still not developed however there is a strong promise that this will be a very useful technology.
Detecting and using brain waves may very well depend on the method and the specific application of the authentication process. However as the research is getting even more advanced, we might see such practices soon enough.
Brain Waves detection and modification is a rising trend in the last few decades. Psychotherapists and entertainers have analyzed and used binaural beats which induce changes into the brain activity to modify the senses and behavior of people.
For more information about Serwadda’s research into the topic, you can view the conference paper titled “fNIRS: A New Modality for Brain Activity-Based Biometric Authentication” available on Research Gate.
